


Seaside

by angstfluffnstuff



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, M/M, Missing Persons, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, Strangers to Lovers, Will Solace is a Ball of Sunshine, Will is a Mess, maybe heavy angst, slight angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-14 17:19:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18952546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angstfluffnstuff/pseuds/angstfluffnstuff
Summary: Leo is gone. Missing gone.Nico meets Will, Will meets Nico.Will can't describe the feeling Nico gives him, but he loves it.Nico knows exactly what it is, and doesn't know what to do with it.And Will...Will is the first to believe Nico.





	Seaside

The only thing that makes this story special is its time period. In this day and age, this account, while shocking, and slightly alarming, is quite a frequent tale, uncomfortably comfortable. It was nearing summer, break, if I recall.  

 

     I was sitting in class, as a student does, listening to Ms. Calliope. Ah, what a lie. I would have been listening, but I was too busy staring and flinching at nothing. By this point in my life, nothing could be done to cure me of my paranoia. But her next words were so significant to me, later in life. Some being up above had blessed me with the gift of paying attention at that moment. 

 

    "As you all may have heard, each year we do an out of school group project. Due to some of the events that happened earlier this year, I have decided that the project will revolve around this prompt:  _ How _ can you connect with your partner, and  _ why _ is this important?." She paused to examine the class. "I want you to think about how people may feel alone in the world, and why that is a terrible, terrible thing. I will be handing you your partner assignments shortly. "

 

     Leo, a friend to all of us had gone missing. Most people thought he was dead: the police, his family, the school. Though we were all... what's the word? Devastated? No, it was more than that. Still, Jason took it the hardest. He kept thinking, saying, showing that if he had just been there, Leo would still be here, smiling. He was the laughter. Now he's gone.  _ Missing _ . He's missing, temporarily gone.   

 

   "Mr. di Angelo, your partner, and assignment outline." I looked up to meet Ms. Calliope's eyes.

 

  "Uh, yeah sorry. When is it due?" Dammit, di Angelo, pay attention! 

 

  "Sometime next month." Enough time to avoid... Will Solace, and get this done. I don't know how I made friends in the first place, I don't like talking to other people. 

 

  I assume it was sometime around Bianca's death, I remember Percy pushing me out of the way. And I stopped talking for a month. Bianca was gone. My dear, lovely, beautiful sister was gone. She had practically raised me, she was my sister, my friend and she kept me together. And she was  _ gone _ . 

 

  "We still have about 30 minutes left in class, so I want you to get together with your partners and begin drafting your project. I will be checking in once or twice a week, so I expect you to be serious, but not too serious. Have some fun with it, okay?" Well, there goes my plan of avoidance.  

 

    "Hey, you're Nico, right? I'm Will." Will said, smiling. I looked up at him. 

 

    "We should get started. What do you want to put into the paper?"

 

    I stared at him. Blonde, blue-eyed, wavy hair. Lose yellow striped t-shirt, and smiling. And he wants to actually work on this? 

 

   "I dunno. Stuff about connecting?" I say, hoping he'll get irritated and let me do all the work. He doesn't, he just smiles at the sarcastic way I talk.  

 

  "I guess we could write about why connecting with people is important or something like that."

 

  "Yeah, seems good."

 

  "Also, for the whole "get to know your partner" thing, we can just, y'know, ask each other random questions over coffee. Can I get your number?" I blinked. "The periods almost over."

 

   Oh. 

 

(Insert slight disappointment.) 

 

   "Yeah. Sure." I scribbled it down on a piece of notebook paper, stood up, and ran out of the classroom. 

 

   Crap. 

* * *

 

I saw him sitting by himself. 

 

    It had confused me, the feeling in my stomach as I spent an hour getting ready, the feeling I had felt when he agreed to meet me here. He didn't talk to anyone outside of Percy's friend group, and he pushed other people away even more after Leo died. It confused me, how he could pull off a leather jacket, flannel on his waist with a pair of beat up converse. And they were  _ beat _ up.  

 

     It confused me more now, as I saw him sitting alone, sipping on coffee. It confused me, what would I say to him? What was okay to ask? I sucked in a breath and walked toward him. 

 

    "Hey, how have you been?" I asked him, taking the seat across from him. He looked up. 

 

    "Oh, hey. Fine." He paused to take another sip. "You?" 

 

    "Great! Ms. Calliope asked us to draft an outline of our paper to show her tomorrow." 

 

    We worked on the paper for a while. At some point, I had begun to interrogate him. His favorite color, place, ice cream flavor. To no surprise, he wasn't much of a talker. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a lady walk up to us. She pointed at the chair. 

 

     "Can we use this?" She asked, looking at Nico. "If you need it, that's fine." Nico stared at her. He looked very, very uncomfortable. I answered for him. 

 

    "Of course, M'am. Go ahead." She thanked us, gave a worried glance in Nico direction, and walked back to her family. What just happened?

 

    "It's been a while since I decided I would leave the house and do something with someone else, around other people." He said, seemingly reading my mind. "So, um, how do you want to do this?" 

 

   I thought for a moment. What do all people share? Um, childhoods, friends, food, hobbies. Hobbies!

 

    "You have any hobbies?"I asked. He paused for a moment. 

    “I mean if you call collecting a _ hobby,  _ then yes?” He smiled (it seemed sad, too sad) and rummaged for something in his bag. Placing a Hades figurine on the table he said, “My sister gave it to me.” He held it in his hand as if he was asking it a question.   

   We continued on like this for a while, about half an hour. He was the exact opposite of who I-and everybody else- thought he would be. I guess I expected him to be rude and… detached. I mean, when we first began talking, he seemed as if he wanted to run away, but he was comfortable enough now to show me valuable possessions.  

   “I have to go,” I said, standing up. “I said I’d go to the beach with Cecil and Lou Ellen. See ya soon, okay?” He smiled and stood up. 

   “See you, Will.” 

   It confused, me then, why I had felt so guilty to walk away from him. 


End file.
